Lawmaker Calls For AR-Style Rifles To Be Locked Up At Gun Clubs

It’s amazing how text so simple can be completely misunderstood by supposedly learned men and women. I am, of course, referring to the plain text of the Second Amendment, which reads, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the people’s right to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

It seems so simple to understand, yet politicians keep missing it. Take the latest example, one Rep. Bill Foster:

Foster was responding to the mass shooting in Las Vegas where Stephen Paddock killed 59 people by firing from the Mandalay Hotel from two tripod mounted AR15s from the 32nd floor.

“I would hope that when you look at what’s happened with mass shootings in the last years that we, at a minimum, establish the principle that if you are going to own a military-type weapon that should be locked away in a gun club and not carried in public – that is completely consistent with the Second Amendment and it’s a principle that we should apply nationally,” he told reporters outside the US Supreme Court.

Foster argues that the second amendment does not block the federal government from ordering certain rifles to be locked up at a gun club. Although most legal scholars would disagree with his understanding of the second amendment he is adamant in his belief.

He also pushed the conspiracy theory that the Republicans in Congress is under the control of the NRA. “The [congressional] leadership is under the control, at least tremendously under the control of the NRA, and people think it’s the individual members of the NRA that are driving this. It is not the individual members. Individual members of the NRA know we need gun safety,” he told reporters. Foster has a D rating with the NRA.

A requirement for a rifle to be stored at a gun club is consistent with the idea that “the people’s right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”? Really?

By requiring any firearm to be kept off-site from your home, you have infringed on their ability to bear arms. AR-15’s have legitimate sporting and personal defense uses beyond simple range time, uses that will be negatively impacted if you can’t take your personal property onto your own personal property.

Every time there’s some tragedy with a firearm, people like Foster trot out their list of favorite European gun control measures, then claim it’s completely consistent with the Second Amendment. It’s not, and only a complete moron would think that it is.

After all, while we may debate the phrase “well-regulated militia” until we’re blue in the face due to the shift in what the term means over time, the phrase “shall not be infringed” is just as plain today as it was in the 18th Century. Regardless of any other factor, the text is clear. People have a right to keep and carry firearms. Period.

Perhaps we should include a literacy test before allowing people to run for Congress? I only suggest it because it sounds like Rep. Foster can’t actually read.